In order to make lightweight and stiff constructions, sandwich constructions are often applied. Sandwich construction materials usually comprise a central lightweight core material, the sandwich core material, and one or more skin layers of composite laminate structures applied on each side of the sandwich core material, which are usually made of fibre reinforced resin materials.
Commonly used sandwich core materials are plates of end grain balsa wood, honeycomb cell structures made of aluminium, card board or paper, plates of thermoplastic foam material such as PVC, PET foam or any other such materials. The sandwich core materials are usually delivered as kits, with all plates carefully machined to fit to each other. The placement of these plates in moulds has up to now been done by hand lay out and is, thus, time consuming and labour intensive.